Three British Muslim men went on trial on Monday accused of planning a string of bombings that prosecutors said could have been deadlier than the July 7, 2005 attacks on London’s transport network.
Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, are accused of being “central figures” in the jihadist plot, London’s Woolwich Crown Court heard.
“The police successfully disrupted a plan to commit an act or acts of terrorism on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005 had it been allowed to run its course,” prosecutor Brian Altman told the jury.
“The defendants were proposing to detonate up to eight rucksack bombs in a suicide attack and/or to detonate bombs on timers in crowded areas in order to cause mass deaths and casualties.”
The three men, who are from Birmingham in central England, are charged with engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts, which they deny.
Naseer is accused of five counts of the offence, Khalid four and Ali three, all between December 2010 and September 2011.
The three are accused of collecting money for terrorism and recruiting two other men to assist in the plot, as well as planning a bombing campaign.
They allegedly tried to make bombs in a flat in Birmingham.
Naseer and Khalid are also accused of travelling to Pakistan for terrorist training, and Naseer also helped others to travel to the country for the same purpose, prosecutors claim. In total, 11 men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin were arrested in connection with the alleged plot, along with one woman.